Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/86

40 lawful for our lord the King to call in what foreigners he pleaſed for the defence of his kingdom and crown, and even ſuch and ſo many as might be able to compel his proud and rebellious ſubjects to their duty. The earl marſhal and the lords went away very much diſſatisfied with this anſwer, and promiſed to one another, that in this cauſe, which concerned the whole nation, they would manfully fight it out to the ſeparation of their fouls from their bodies.

the mean while, the biſhop of Wincheſter and his accomplices had ſo far perverted the King’s heart to hate and deſpiſe the Engliſh nation, that he ſtudied the extirpation of them all manner of ways, and by a few at a time, invited over ſo many legions of Poitovins, that they almoſt filled all England; with troops of which, whereeverwherever [sic] the King went, he ſtill was walled in and environed. Nor was any thing done in the kingdom but as the biſhop of Wincheſter and this rout of Poitovins ordered it. The King then calls a parliament to meet on Midſummer-day at Oxford, but the aforeſaid aſſociated lords would not come at his ſummons, partly for fear of the lying in wait of theſe foreigners, and partly out of the indignation which they conceived againſt the King